Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of cables, and more particularly in the field of field-expedient documentation logs, and other means, for recording the details of the connections formed by each particular cable and providing those details to the field technician actually handling such cables. Each cable connects and links together various devicesxe2x80x94electronic, optical, or optical-electronicxe2x80x94which may be communications, computer, audio, visual, input, output, or otherwise information-managing devicesxe2x80x94and each such connection has both physical and logical complexities that a field technician must manage, as the dynamics of the connection and cabling change with use and time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Anyone who has maintained the physical connections between multiple devices (chiefly electronic) which intercommunicate, and had to trace a cable from one end to the other to find out what device is at the other end(s) thereof and thereby is connected by that cable, is at least potentially familiar with the problem addressed by this invention. Standing at one end of a cable (communications, fiber-optic, home stereo, video, Ethernet, or other), you often cannot see the other end. Or you cannot distinguish that other end from any of a number of other cables surrounding you and plugged into the devices, all of which (or worse, only some of which) form the network of intercommunication you are attempting to manage. A great deal of time, when one is trying to maintain, update, or otherwise change a network of physically connected devices, is spent tracing connections and confirming that the cable in the hand links to the desired device at the cable""s opposite end. There are four current approaches to the problem addressed in this invention, none of which meets the objects of this invention.
In the first approach a physically separate printed log is maintained listing which cable joins which ports. These listings are typically kept in an inexpensive but bulky binder or notebook, or in a separate file on a computer, and accessing them requires finding and bringing along the separate access device (binder, PDA, or laptop) and then identifying (by location, first connection, description, or other means) the cable of concern. In the second approach, each end of each cable is imprinted with an icon representing the type of cable to which that end is meant to attach. This requires each device to include dozens of different molds for all possible combinations of cables, and degrades the value of common, and open, cabling and connection standards such as USB, Firewire, or Ethernet or of flexible connections. In the third approach, human intelligence traces each cable on each use, which is labor and time intensive, particularly with complex networks, on a more-than-linear basis. The fourth approach is to use ad-hoc or improvised means (colored twist ties, temporary sticky notes, daubs of paint or nail polish) to distinguish one cable from another, but relies on the technician""s memory and defeats standardized maintenance, or at least increases its cost considerably by the need to train each worker to the ad-hoc or impromptu means.
The average technician or user, standing at a device with one of the myriad cables linking it into the network in his hand, wants a simple and direct approach: he would like that cable itself to tell him what lies at the other end. The main object of this invention is to meet that need with a simple, inexpensive, and integral solution.
By providing, for at least one end of a cable connecting one or more electronic or other devices (communication, computing, input/output, display, or otherwise), a clip which joins that cable to a log containing the information about the purpose, nature, placement, and physical and logical mapping for the connection(s) provided by that cable(s), any person later examining the log (preferably kept in a socket in the clip and thus immediately at hand and available for inspection) may discover in one place and at the point of need all the relevant information concerning that cable""s purpose, nature, function, placement, and opposite end(s). Optimally both ends, or all ends, of all cables would have or use such clips containing in their sockets the correctly recorded contextual information concerning their particular portion of the current configuration. Then when working with multiple cables, or with any cable whose other end is not in the present view, confusion or uncertainty is reduced to a minimum by providing at each point the necessary and accurate information which direct observation cannot otherwise supply.